A combination of things brought my thoughts this week to the Greater Springfield Interfaith Association.

It was the murderous targeting of Jews in Kansas City. It was this week of Passover and Easter. It was reading that the Boston Marathon bombing resulted in clergy from different faiths in Boston reaching out to each other in a spirit of cooperation that had not previously existed.

To be honest, I would have bet that the Greater Springfield Interfaith Association was no more. That probably says more about me than them, but that’s what I thought.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the GSIA, but it used to be, also, that the four bishops who lived in Springfield — Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran and Episcopal — met with each other once a month in a very unique support group. That doesn’t happen anymore, either.

I didn’t remember the GSIA giving out its annual Humanitarian Award last year, and we usually do a story saying who was the recipient. I searched our news archives and found nothing on that award last year. I checked GSIA’s website and found it to be somewhat out of date. Its application for the Humanitarian Award is from 2012. So, I thought, it was done.

But it is still going, meeting the first Tuesday of every month. I found out also that its membership is smaller and older than it was in its heyday. And aren’t we all?

There was a time in Springfield when the GSIA, which has existed since the 1970s, had a higher profile. In 1986, in the midst of a contentious battle over changing the form of Springfield city government, the GSIA took its first political stand.

“We just want to go on record, with whatever weight we carry, that we want to influence the mayor to settle that suit in favor of a change,” said its president at the time, Rabbi Barry Marks of Temple Israel. “We feel the change to an aldermanic system would be more representative of all segments of the city. It would give all parts of town an alderman to speak for them.”

I called Marks and another longtime GSIA member, the Rev. Kevin Laughery, to inquire about the status of the group. I found that there was no Humanitarian Award given last year. That’s why I don’t remember it being handed out.

Marks said the local clergy have always been a bit divided in their different missions and outlook. I knew that. I knew pastors on the east side of Springfield have their own organization, the Ministerial Alliance of Springfield and Vicinity.

“You have the evangelical, for lack of a better word, ‘conservative’ Protestant community,” says Marks, “they’ve never been part of it. I don’t think the Missouri Synod Lutherans have ever been part of it. A few Catholics, Kevin has been steadfast. Father (Tom) Holinga used to be a member.”

Page 2 of 2 - Marks said part of the reason for the ebb and flow of the group is the personalities of members. Some of the clergy members in the 1970s and 1980s, like the Rev. Rudy Shoultz of Union Baptist Church and Rabbi Stephen Moch of Temple B’rith Shalom to name two, were passionate and outspoken on local issues.

The GSIA’s membership peaked in those days at around 50 active members. Now, it’s less than half that.

I think congregations have changed as well since those days. Congregations, mirroring the country, are aging. Church membership, especially in mainline Protestant religions, has declined. Also, people no longer take their pastor’s word as law anymore, which translates into perhaps a shrug were the GSIA clergy to take a stand on local issues.

But Laughery, GSIA member since 1986, is more optimistic about the group, though he allowed that the Humanitarian Award wasn’t given last year “because maybe we’re tired.”

He was joking, but there was a grain of truth as well. “None of us are getting any younger,” he says. “Though, we are encouraged by some newer, younger members.”

He said one of the upcoming GSIA initiatives that holds promise is a planned dialogue with the Ministerial Alliance on the subject of racism.

Paying attention to the news, a person could get the idea that churches/religion are more divisive than inclusive. You aren’t welcome here. Mine’s better than yours. Given those messages, it was encouraging to know that local clergy could find common ground and work together. And it’s equally discouraging to know that some never could and that those who did are dwindling.

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